Please join us Saturday March 5th from 8pm-11pm at the Universalist Unitarian Church in Moscow for a night of music, drinks and laughter. The Universalist Church is located at 420 East 2nd Street. Admission is $5-$10 sliding scale and there will be a wine/beer cash bar and a raffle too! Musical line up is the following: Jeanne McHale 8-9pm, The Grateful Live 9-10pm, Idler’s Rest 10-11pm. All proceeds from the event will go towards continuing the fight to keep mega-loads out of the Clearwater Basin.

The Moscow Volunteer Peace Band is kicking the evening’s festivities off with a 7pm parade from Friendship Square to the Universalist Church. Please join us for this Mardi Gras style “Mega-load of Music” fundraiser.

I hope to see you there!!!
~Jeremy

The time has come for these loads to leave Lewiston on their journey to Billings, MT as well as destinations further North.  I will lay out how things currently stand for not one, but THREE different transport initiatives taking place in our area RIGHT AS WE SPEAK.

Mega-Loads [ConocoPhillips - Billings, MT Refinery] – 4 HUGE loads [link to pics]
[Links to news]
http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/article_88bb55c6-36cd-11e0-8082-001cc4c002e0.html
http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_8bec7bd8-3733-11e0-9dd9-001cc4c002e0.html
http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_5d0cfac0-34d3-11e0-861a-001cc4c03286.html

‘Super-Loads’ [ExxonMobil - Kearl Tar Sands, AB, CA, via Spokane, WA]
[Links to story]
http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/xom_some-megaloads-will-bypass-u-s-12-1487811.html
http://voices.idahostatesman.com/2011/02/13/rockybarker/some_megaloads_appear_be_avoiding_scenic_route_across_idaho

MEGA.v2
http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_a5368b7e-3567-11e0-8072-001cc4c03286.html

STAY TUNED, PICTURES AND MORE TO COME THIS WEEKEND!
~Jeremy

Here is the blog of the Spokesman-Review’s Boise bureau chief, Betsy Russell.  She posted a bunch of quotes and opinions from this morning’s meeting.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/

I will leave you with Betsy’s post on the final “decision” of today.

The hearing has wrapped up on the ConocoPhillips megaloads and whether to allow opponents to intervene in the permit case. “I will take this matter under advisement,” said hearing officer Merlyn Clark. “I will issue a decision before Thanksgiving, it will be a written recommendation to the director, it’ll then be in the hands of the director,” he said. “I want to compliment counsel for the excellent work that you have done providing me the briefing and the factual information I need to make a decision. Thank you. We are adjourned.”
http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/boise/2010/nov/19/conoco-hearing-concludes-decision-next-week/

End View

Current view from Port of Lewiston access road

Weight of unit, not including trailer or truck

On the trailer since June, ready to roll

Approx dimensions of large ConocoPhillips mega-loads for reference

If you were to travel to the Port of Lewiston, as I did last Wednesday (November 3rd, 2010), this is what you would see.  These are the proposed mega-loads bound for Billings, MT (the red-round things), and the grey pipe structures are bound for Northern Alberta’s Kearl Oil Sands development.  The final route of travel for these industrial oil implements is awaiting a decision from Idaho Transportation Department, which recently has been put on hold by a lawsuit filed by Kamiah, ID residents/business owners, Borg Hendrickson and Linwood Laughy (their website can be found at: www.fightinggoliath.org).

Current count of Mega-Loads

4 – Coke Furnaces (red & round)
~20 – Oil Sands processing rigs (grey & boxy)

if you have any corrections to this count, please email us at: greensheetradio@gmail.com!

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/nov/01/idaho-court-oks-highway-12-mega-loads/

Link to the official court document:
http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2010/11/Conoco-11-1-10.pdf

Idaho Statesman:
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/11/01/1400980/apnewsbreak-idaho-court-vacates.html

Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
http://www.dnews.com/breaking-news/1455/

Dirty Oil – Babelgum’s first original feature film production. Narrated by Canadian actress and environmentalist Neve Campbell, this much anticipated feature documentary from Academy Award®-Nominated director Leslie Iwerks goes deep behind-the-scenes into the strip-mined world of Northern Alberta, Canada

LINK Below!

http://www.babelgum.com/dirtyoil

Before-After image of a small area of the Canadian Tar Sands from National Geographic

Link to them both at Northern Rockies Rising Tide, where you can also find a long list of news up to this point!  Also FightingGoliath has more links, both are regional blogs, run by concerned citizens, such as ourselves.

Jane O’ Holly Productions made this short (~8 min) documentary on the issue, further substantiating the claims that this action will turn the Highway 12 corridor into a permanent shipping route for Big Oil, and the Tar Sands!
via: Jane O’ Holly Productions

Here are a few visuals of the scale of the “Mega Loads,” slated to traverse through the Idaho Panhandle, Rockies, and NW Montana, via Wild and Scenic US Highway 12.  Their final destinations will be to Northern Alberta’s Kearl Oil Sands project.
(MORE TO COME…STAY TUNED!)

These are 4, of the proposed 200+ mega loads (click for full & details)

H2Oil Film Showing and Discussion

Tuesday, October 19 at 5:30 PM

Social Forum at University of Idaho, OXFAM Club University of Idaho, University of Idaho Environmental Club, Northern Rockies Rising Tide, and Friends of the Clearwater will be sponsoring a showing of the documentary “H2Oil” Oct. 19 at 5:30 p.m. in the College of Natural Resources, Room 10.

The documentary is about the tar sands oil project occurring in Alberta, Canada and how that project is affecting the global environment and downstream Canadian First Nation communities. There is a current proposal to ship tar sands oil processing equipment up Highway 12 in Idaho, through Montana and into Canada. The issue has been front page news in the local papers all summer and there is a lawsuit pending in the state’s Supreme Court right now over whether or not permits can be legally issued for their transportation on our state highways.

Members of the student and community organizations sponsoring this event will conduct a Q & A session following the film.

This event is free and open to all.

via: http://www.uidaho.edu/newsevents/item?name=h2oil-film-showing-and-discussion